Mexico’s Leader Likens Donald Trump’s Tone to Hitler and Mussolini’s

President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico in Mexico City in January.Credit
Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press

Mexico’s president has said that his country will not pay for Donald J. Trump’s proposed wall along the United States-Mexico border, and has likened the presidential candidate’s “strident” tone to that of dictators like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini during their ascents.

He added, “Of course I can’t agree with this American politician’s position.”

Mr. Peña Nieto also attacked the tone of the Trump campaign.

“And there have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations in the history of humanity,” he said. “That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in. They took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis.”

In spite of his comments, Mr. Peña Nieto stressed that his administration would seek to reach agreement and maintain a respectful relationship with the winner of the United States presidential election.